Knives, scissors and other cutting tools are utilized on an everyday basis in a wide variety of situations, ranging from food preparation to various outdoor uses, such as chopping wood, to self-defense. In order to facilitate efficient and effective cutting by the blades of such cutting tools, and to facilitate the safety of users of the blades, the blades should be maintained with sharp, straight cutting edges. Any cutting processes result in the cutting edges of the blades quickly becoming dull and including defects, such as nicks, which necessitates periodic conditioning of the blades.
Many tools are available for conditioning blades. For example, many typically known hand-held conditioning devices utilize stationary rods which are positioned to form a blade conditioning zone therebetween at an intersection of the rods. The blade is dragged through the blade conditioning zone and contacts the rods, and this contact between the blade and the rods conditions the blade. However, such stationary rods in many cases do not adequately condition blades, and may not be suitably adaptable to a variety of blades having different sizes and shapes.
Known automated processes for conditioning blades also have various disadvantages. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,758,084 to Knecht et al., issued on Jun. 24, 2014 and which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, is directed to apparatus for grinding hand knives. U.S. Pat. No. 8,915,766 to Kolchin, issued on Dec. 23, 2014 and which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, is directed to automatic knife sharpeners and methods for their use. However, neither Knecht et al. nor Kolchin measures the entire edge profile of a blade to be conditioned and conditions the blade to a modified edge profile that approximates characteristics of the original edge profile, such as the curvature, etc.
Accordingly, improved systems and methods for conditioning blades are desired. In particular, automated systems and methods which measure the entire edge profile of a blade to be conditioned and condition the blade to a modified edge profile that approximates characteristics of the original edge profile would be advantageous.